Major news recently as the Chinese government has reportedly given approval to some, but not all, the GM crops that have been held up in the country’s byzantine approval process. As stated below, it’s a gesture of good will toward the US with the on and off trade talks. But that also demonstrates how despite the scientifically and time proven safety of GM crops the technology has been used as leaverage in trade battles.
China Gives Long-awaited GM Crop Approvals Amid US Trade Talks
BEIJINGÂ Jan 8, 2019 (Reuters via Voice of America)
China approved five genetically modified (GM) crops for import on Tuesday, the first in about 18 months in a move that could boost its overseas grains purchases and ease pressure from the United States to open its markets to more farm goods.
The United States is the world’s biggest producer of GM crops, while China is the top importer of GM soybeans and canola.
U.S. farmers and global seed companies have long complained about Beijing’s slow and unpredictable process for approving GM crops for import, stoking trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
The approvals, announced on the agriculture ministry’s website, were granted while a U.S. trade delegation is meeting with its counterparts in the Chinese capital this week.
“It’s a goodwill gesture towards the resolution of the trade issue,” said a China representative of a U.S. agricultural industry association.
“It’s been in the system for a long time but they chose today to release this good news,” he added, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The approved products included DowDuPont Inc.’s DP4114 Qrome corn and DAS-44406-6 soybean, known as Enlist E3, as well as the SYHT0H2 soybean developed by Bayer CropScience and Syngenta but now held by German chemical company BASF.
The other two newly approved products – BASF’s RF3 canola and Bayer-owned Monsanto’s glyphosate-tolerant MON 88302 canola – had been waiting six years for permission.
The approvals came as farmers in North America were deciding which seeds to plant this spring. China before the trade war bought some 60 percent of U.S. soybeans and U.S. farmers do not widely plant varieties it has not approved.
The newly approved canola will allow farmers in Canada to boost production, according to Jim Everson, president of industry group the Canola Council.
“The industry expects growers will produce $400 million more canola every year using the same amount of land – a step-change for canola productivity,” Everson said in a statement.
Five other products known to be seeking approvals were not given the green light, including two GM alfalfa products developed by Monsanto and two DowDuPont soybean traits.